Symphonic Fantasy

New tunes on the SoundCloud page...









https://soundcloud.com/chrisotchy

Alex Grey

"I see that everybody is a unique thimbleful of God Force. Every person is a Sacred Mirror." - Alex Grey

Great interview with him in Common Ground this month--his reflections on creativity, relationships, his art, and the progress of the soul. I went to his Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York when it was in the Meat Packing District years ago. It's now in Upstate New York, and more fabulously transcendental than ever, I'm sure. Truly blessed artist.

More about Alex Grey and his art at alexgrey.com.

Jimmy Page's Lucifer Rising Soundtrack

When Kenneth Anger was finishing his epic Lucifer Rising, he contacted Jimmy Page (who also has a cameo in the film) to do the soundtrack, consequently giving him his master reels to compose against. I won't go into details, but the whole debacle ended in disaster, Anger never got the music, and I believe he ended up having to re-shoot large portions of the film that Page never gave back to him. The final soundtrack composer was Bobby Beausoleil, who recorded what became the official soundtrack while still in jail for his affiliation with the Manson Family.

Jimmy Page's actual soundtrack has been one the most sought after bootlegs of film and rock-nerd history. I found (what I believe to be) Page's soundtrack--here it is. Enjoy the weirdness. 

More interesting details on the Page/Anger connection.  

Virgin Galactic Will Bring You to the Moon

Virgin is privatizing space travel—and these are some of the coolest photos from Virgin Galactic yet. Though very few will be able to afford it, it’s a bold move on the part of one of the most forward thinking companies of our age. Check it out.

 

 

Daft Punk + Giorgio Moroder = Beautiful Feel

Once your brain realizes that you’re dying, it releases DMT, one of the most powerful known psychedelics. This dilates your perception of time and allowing you to live inside your own mind for hours or even days.

For the Living

Dedicated to those we lost in 2012, especially Margaret Otchy, Chris Schorb, Jeff Lunger, and Adrian Pooley.

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For the Living

When you are sad and alone
Think of me
When you are frustrated by the world
Think of me
When you know that you are right, and that there is injustice that seems insurmountable
Think of me
When you are tired and weary and disgusted by your lot
Think of me
When the day is beginning, and you know it will be a struggle the whole way through
Think of me
When the day is drawing to a close, and you feel like you have achieved nothing other than driving yourself out of your mind
Think of me
When you think you have nothing left to give, and the world is unfair, and you have seen the worst of it
Think of me
When you think no one cares, when you are convinced there is no meaning
Think of me
When you don't think you have the heart to see another day, and there's nothing but pain before you
Know that I was there once, too
When there's nothing left but rinds and crumbs in the pantry, and a whole family waiting to eat
Think of me
When you think you've given it all you had, and still it is not enough
Think of me
I've been there, and I assure you, you are not alone
I am with you
How could I abandon you, my child, my brother, my sister, my kin,
My father, my mother, my lover, my friend?
You need only think of me, and I will be there
Where else could I be but in the presence of those I loved so dearly?
And will continue to love
Until we meet again

Fear of Sunday Morning

You wake up and you don’t know what to do. You lay there looking at the ceiling for a long time, then toss and turn for almost a whole hour, paralyzed with indecision. Your mom calls, and gives you an update on everything mundane that’s happened during the week in her world, and all you can say is, “I’m fine.”

After you hang up, you try to lay down again, but you can’t go back to sleep. A vague guilt hangs around your neck for the things you said or didn’t say, or should have said in a different way. “Phrasing, it’s all about phrasing,” you say to yourself.

You get up and take a shower, out of routine, still unsure of where the day is going, still a distant pang of dis-ease in the antipodes of your mind, like some lunatic screaming in the distance. This is the only free time you've had this week, the only chance you've had to do what you want. So many plans you've made, so many options discovered, so many ideas generated, only to be frustrated because you didn’t have the time. And now here it is, laid out in front of you, like a patient etherized on a table. Now you are free… and the freedom is paralyzing.

You get dressed, meditate, stretch a little and start off on a walk up the hill. You listen to some music, and suddenly you find yourself wanting to soar, to really soar. You start to remember what it is to be alive. You’re reminded of who you are, and that private part of yourself you don’t show to anyone; that indestructible place that makes you You.

“Do people really make it?” you wonder. “Do people really make anything they dream of while they are locked away in the chains of their own design?” You become completely obsessed with this feeling of wanting to be happy, to be content beyond what you've always known. Of trying to find the in between.

Your dreams start unfurling again, and somehow, you find yourself smiling. Hopeful. You can own some small piece of the sky if you really want to. You can capture some of that gorgeousness you’re forever chasing, never really knowing if you could really get there, or even into that orbit.

Up ahead there is a wall of fog, where the houses thin out and run into the open, undeveloped land. It looks like walking into a cloud. You pass into the mist and the air is cool and fresh on your face. You soon become disoriented, and find yourself not knowing which way is up. Emotions swirl inside you.

“I just want to do something beautiful. I just want to make people feel for at least a second, that they aren't so alone; that there are other people in the world that feel the same way; that we are all connected by that bond—that we all feel that same inconsolable loneliness, and that it is only when we can express that profound loneliness that we can feel connected again.”

Mist from the fog condenses on your glasses, and people walking by can’t tell that you've been crying. When you come back down back into your house, you know what you must do.

Paging through Encyclopaedia Galactica

One of my favorite episodes of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series

-->is “Encyclopaedia Galactica,” where he explains the Drake equation. -->This unwieldy formula, more theory than math, estimates the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.    

 

In the episode, Carl explains how scientists in the 1960-70s came up with numbers for each of the variables. He starts with the estimate that there are 4 billion stars in the Milky Way, and ends with an estimate that there may be as few as 10 other civilizations in existence with the means of interstellar communication akin to our radio telescopes.

He admits this is a conservative estimate—there may be hundreds or even thousands of civilizations out there—but there just as easily may be none at all. The existence of life in this galaxy is very rare, and the probability of us running into anyone else very, very small. We could very likely be all alone. 

The Ramifications of Being Alone in the Universe 

Which started me thinking. If life is as rare as that, then each one of us is truly an extraordinary being. If the 7 billion people on the planet Earth are the only intelligent beings in over 120,000 light years, that makes us all pretty special. Each one of our thoughts is a rare and wonderful thing, no matter what its contents. Each of our notions may have no precedent in this or any other universe. Each of our creative efforts is herculean—simply for the fact that we as intelligent life forms are so unbelievably rare. 

Take a minute to let that sink in. We are each one in a billion, surrounded by an unfathomable amount of empty space, exploding stars, dead rocks, and cold, inanimate moon dust. For all that nothing, there is only one of you. You are a very special being.

Conclusion

So don’t belittle your own thoughts—it may be the first and last time an intelligent being entertains it. Don’t discount what you think is a cool or an interesting idea just because it came from you. Emerson said, “To believe in your own thought, to believe that what is true for you is true for all men—that is genius.” Even more so in light of the fact that you may be the only being to bring conscious awareness to it in countless uninhabited worlds. 

 

 

Death of the Ego, Birth of a New Consciousness

 

In December 2012 or thereabouts, a remarkable shift in consciousness will take place. It has been called the Mayan Superdate, the Second Coming of Christ, the Return of Quetzalcoatl, and the Blooming of Human Consciousness. But all these things are metaphorical. In truth, it is a vague time in which humans can finally realize how limitless we truly are. On or about this date, you will celebrate a death of a aspect of yourself that has been living and working inside your being for far too long. On or about this date, you will finally lose that retraining and altogether unfortunate by-product of your infinite soul manifesting in an earthly vessel.

I’m talking about the ego.

This fictitious identity does nothing more than instill a false sense of individuality, when the truth is you and I are one. The ego imbues us with illusions of limitation and beliefs we think are real… but they are not. The ego gives you fear, it gives you doubt, it gives you a false feeling of vulnerability, a false need to protect and defend yourself from others—when the truth is you are an eternal, luminescent being: deathless, limitless, undying, and undefeatable.

The ego is nothing more than an unfortunate side effect of your soul’s manifestation in your body. It has plagued all of us for eons—but now the time has come for you to realize your true nature. You are infinite consciousness, bigger than the ego, better than the ego, more expansive and beautiful than the ego could ever let you be.

The ego is concerned with money, and security, and fame, and recognition. But what need does an unlimited being have for such things? Fear drives you to chase after these false idols. Fear makes you think that such things will bring you happiness and satisfaction, when the truth is, they never have, and never will.

The moment of your re-birth coincides with the day you choose to let go of your rational fear patterns and go into the divine dance of inner direction.

When you let go of those rational fears, and the pitfalls of rational thinking, and realize that inside you lies all the answers, all the direction you need, a compass that without fail will point you to where you should go, then you will finally be free.

Fearlessly follow your heart and you will never be lead astray.

Your Life: A Choice

It’s difficult putting yourself out there. Your heart is probably the most difficult thing you’ll ever wear.

No one said it would be easy, being human, exposing your vulnerabilities, your every weakness to the world. In fact, it’s easier to be a critic. Stay detached, make fun of everybody else for the choices they’ve made. Mock everybody. Be a nihilist.

But I don’t like people who don’t believe in anything. I don’t trust someone who makes their life around mocking others, claiming chaos is the natural state of the world, that life has no meaning, owing allegiance to no one and nothing... That’s too easy. Being asleep at the wheel is probably the easiest thing you can do in this life. Take the easy road, take a pay check, hide from the world.

Scientists have confirmed that 83.94% of the population is legally brain dead.

They are pushed by the winds of fate from one place to another, chasing after things and toys and experiences that grant pleasure. They chase pleasure like a dog chasing a bounding tennis ball. They chase pleasure because they equate it with happiness, and when the pleasure goes, they turn to their televisions, and their fast food, and their government issued checks. They go back to sleep.

This is not happening far away—it’s all around you.

So we are faced with a choice: either you live with your heart on your sleeve, pushing toward something that fulfills deeply, even if it also means experiencing less than pleasurable conditions; or we remain asleep at the wheel, pushing papers from one side of a desk to the other, sending endless emails, updating statuses that no one cares about… no one, that is, except the other drones who are in the same condition. Hiding. Until that one day comes—if we’re lucky—when we stop and realize how empty our lives really are. We turn around and see all the things we missed out on, because we took the easy route. We criticized. We hid. We didn't dare look at our vulnerabilities, and see them for what they truly were--our strangest and most potent powers. Our unique characteristics. Our true joys.

But by then, it will be far too late to do anything about it. We’ll continue to hide, doing it for the money, because that's what we've always done. And then we will die inside, and regret being such morons, with a thousand unfulfilled dreams.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

We have been told for ages that atoms are primarily made up of empty space, with the only actually solid component being the nucleus. Technological advances have allowed us to get deeper into the actual nucleus of an atom—to penetrate it and see what it’s made of. What scientists have found is astonishing. They have concluded that even the nucleus itself is primarily made of empty space.

We also know that physicists running tests on light beams have uncovered that they sometimes behave like waves, and other times behave like particles—an interesting phenomenon called the wave/particle duality. They suspect the reason for this is that the observer’s expectations are actually affecting the outcome.

Quantum physicists are now theorizing that atoms are not so much things as they are tendencies; that reality doesn’t actually snap into place until we bring our attention to it. It’s the very act of consciousness that makes things real.

Which brings us to the old question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?

According to quantum physics—no. If no one is there to hear or see it, the tree--and the entire forest for that matter—doesn’t even exist.

The Problem with Live Music

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Like most human beings, I am a music fan. I like listening to it, and I like to see it performed. But recently something has been going on at live shows that has bothered me.

In the past few years, I have had the chance to see several bands perform that I really loved and anticipated. They had good sounds that I assumed would translate well to the live space; yet when I saw them, I found the experience deflating.

Conversely, I have seen several bands that I had never heard of previously, but found their live shows incredibly satisfying.

Now, why would I enjoy seeing a band I had never heard of—some in genres I don’t even listen to—and yet find the performance of bands I am fully in love with dissatisfying?

I’ve pondered this long and hard and came up with this answer: it’s all about experience and expectation. The bands I know and love already occupy a huge part of my brain. I’ve built enormous, ornate shrines to them. When I hear their music, elaborate videos play in my head. Sometimes it’s a soundtrack to my dreams, sometimes I’m in the band. I’ve already co created an awesome mental experience that goes along with the music. It’s like a movie, except I’m creating it and controlling it. And starring in it, for that matter.

In light of this, I have to say, I feel a little sorry seeing these bands. How can they possibly compete with what’s going on in my head? My brain is the most perfect, powerful and eternal stage that ever existed—for me. Your brain is the same for you. How can these bands possibly live up to that? They can’t. Sure, once in a while an awesome act will impress me, but what’s going on in my brain is a very hard act to follow.

On the other hand, these new bands that I hadn’t heard of before or had very limited exposure to—they are the ones that usually impress me. They don’t yet live in my brain. They are a totally new experience for me, and seeing and hearing them live builds brand new neuropathways, and therefore, affords a more pleasurable experience.

Strange, but it makes sense to me now. Tempering expectations is always a wise move when approaching your idols--now I have even more reason to do so.

Maharishi Explains Transcendental Meditation

Beautiful video, conceptually and visually, of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explaining the nature of Transcendental Meditation. This was shot at Lake Louise, Canada in 1968.

Evolving Beyond Money

What value does money have in our society? Is it a tool, or an evolutionary cul-de-sac?

Yes, money allows us to trade commodities, and it forms a baseline for exchange of goods and services. What are the value of these things in our society? It's convenient, yes, but think of all the meaningless actions we are all forced into in order to acquire money. No human can deny that deep in one’s soul, there somewhere resonates the truth of the statement: All work is meaningless.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that our station in life and in society is determined by how much time and effort we wish to devote to fooling ourselves that this is not so.

 Is it possible we could trade based on something else? Is it possible to exchange the necessary goods and services we need to live without currency? Is it possible we as a species are being held back simply by being forced into this fear-based scarcity mindset where we MUST spend—not a portion—but the majority of our day engaged in useless activity, for which we are barely compensated and meagerly thanked, in order to fill our plates and keep our homes? We are giving our lives up for… what exactly? We are living inside the bones of a dinosaur that has been dead before our fathers’ fathers’ fathers were conceived. Can we not conceive of something else?

I am not a communist. I see that that modality failed. I’m just a common man who believes that we as a species are better than this. We are better than money. We no longer need to be wage slaves, for it is our own doing. Perhaps simply acknowledging this fact is the first step in creating a dialogue around how we as a species can evolve. 

The Obama Experience

Last week, I was selected from a pool of 1.2 million LinkedIn users to attend a Town Hall meeting with President Obama. It was a strange and awesome experience, the full reasoning for which I can only estimate. What follows is my attempt at explaining.

On Monday, September 19 I received an email from a LinkedIn employee announcing that they were hosting a panel discussion on “economic opportunity” and asking if I would like to join. They were interested in me particularly because they saw that in recent years I had switched careers from a field that was shrinking (journalism) to one that was expanding (market research). If I was interested in attending, I was asked to briefly summarize my career history as well as my perspective on the current employment crisis. I did so.

The following day, LinkedIn reached out to me saying that they liked my responses and that they had some exciting news. The panel discussion to which they were inviting me was in fact a town hall meeting with President Obama. They asked if I was available the following Monday, September 26, and if so, what question I would ask the President.

At this point I was in a state of disbelief, but on the off chance it might be real—and might be the opportunity of a lifetime—I composed a question based on my experience shifting careers. I am of the mindset that education is the key to discovering new job opportunities—not only in the academic sense of learning new skills—but also in educating oneself on the opportunities available and how one can reconfigure their skill set to match. The original question went something like this:

What can federal government do in conjunction with US citizens to provide or promote education amongst adults interested in shifting careers? Is there something that can be done to raise awareness of the opportunities available to adults who are facing career changes?

Later that day, a lady from LinkedIn wrote to me and asked if we could talk on the phone. I was in the short list of people selected to ask the President a question. We chatted a little bit about this and that—mostly I think to verify that I wasn’t a nut case—and then she asked for some more personal information. Since I was in the running to be in the same room as the President, she needed to do a background check, see if I had a criminal history, verify my legal standing, etc. Wow, I thought, this is getting pretty serious. But she seemed nice and very sincere. I checked the whole thing out online and various sources confirmed that the President was supposed to be holding a town hall meeting in Palo Alto the following Monday in conjunction with LinkedIn. So I complied.

Two days later, I opened my email and quiver of fear/anxiety/excitement ran through my spine. I had been selected to attend the event! My question was in the top 6 of 8 to be asked.

I arrived at the Four Seasons Palo Alto Sunday evening half expecting someone to pop out from around the corner with a video camera saying that the whole thing had been a practical joke--but that never happened. Instead I met with a group of equally shocked/jazzed participants flown in from all over the country. Some were out of work, some were underemployed, some were veterans looking for career training, and some had successfully made a transition to a new career, like myself. We chatted together in a state of shocked disbelief. The LinkedIn team then helped us rehearse our questions for the President. After some revisions and a suggestion to add a little personal history to give my question context, I ended up with this:

Good Morning, Mr. President. Three years ago, I found myself out of work. Being unable to find gainful employment in my chosen field, which was journalism, I sought and landed a job in a field about which I knew little previously, but for which my skills and training were well suited—market research.

I have great faith in the American people’s ability to adapt—as long as we are empowered with the knowledge of burgeoning opportunities and career fields.

Is there a way the federal government can provide or promote education for adults looking to change careers—especially those who find the fields they’ve been trained for are either saturated or evaporating?

The morning of September 26, we were shuttled to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. After going through airport-level security, we were admitted to an auditorium filled with LinkedIn employees, LinkedIn members such as myself, and a few random Silicon Valley luminaries (including this guy, who apparently was one of the original employees at Google). The head of the Secret Service for the event gave us a briefing.

“You can stand and sit as much as you want,” he said, “but do not leave your seat. I repeat—do not leave your seat. If you forget, someone will be there to remind you.”

Once we were all seated and locked in, the nerves really kicked in. The anticipation was palpable. Background music was playing over the PA system and between each song there were long, pregnant pauses when the entire crowd involuntarily silenced. The collective bated breath of 100 people generated a crazy energy in the crowd. It was almost as though someone had set a spell on everyone, and all we could do was look at each other incredulously and shake our heads. The spell would finally be broken when someone dropped a camera or the next song started or whathaveyou, and we giggled at our own nervousness.

After a good hour of waiting in our seats, the CEO of LinkedIn came in, gave his speech, and introduced the President. The erupted in cheers—partially because we were glad to see the guest of honor and partially because the tension of his arrival had finally been released.

Seeing Obama in person is extraordinary. He is a fantastic performer. Poised, well spoken, unflappable—in addition to handsome and very well dressed—Obama made a fantastic impression. It was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen, in or out of a theater. He is a commanding orator, and when he speaks, its difficult not to stop everything and listen. It’s no wonder he’s the President—he’s a very, very likable person. When you think about it—that’s what politics is, really. People have problems of all sizes. They have questions, worries, concerns, fears. What’s going to happen to my family? What’s going to happen to my town, my job, my health, my country? The President is someone who is trained to answer all those questions—and Obama does it with style. You walk away feeling like, “everything’s going to be fine. He’s in charge.” Needless to say, I was impressed.

In the end, I didn’t get to ask my question. They told us from the start that depending on the length of the President’s answers, he might not get to all of us. Nevertheless, while answering someone else’s question, he did address my topic. He stated that Americans need to adapt to the present job climate, and that there were education opportunities the government would be endorsing. He promoted the American Jobs Act, which he recently put to Congress, which (if passed) includes mandates for “innovative job training” and incentives for companies to hire long-term unemployed workers, amongst a host of other statutes.

I might not have had the chance to “speak” with the President directly, but I was at least in the same room with him. That was enough for me. It was an amazing experience and one I’ll never forget.

Modern Mythology

Humans are meaning seeking creatures. It is an undeniable human characteristic. Against all the chaotic and depressing evidence to the contrary, we seek out meaning and are on personal quests to fill our lives with some degree of purpose. It may seem foolish sometimes, but it is an unquestionably human drive. One of the key ways that this impulse is manifested is through mythology.

Mythology isn’t something that happened in the past; some ancient, misaligned quasi-religious belief. Mythology may be based in the past, and many times is based on a historical event or figure, but what defines a functional, relevant myth is that it is something that we are experiencing over and over again in our daily lives. It’s an occurrence that has been liberated from a particular time period and has been brought into our contemporary lives.

Take for example Jesus. Jesus was a historical figure that lived and was killed around 30 c.e. He had devotees and influence over a set number of people who believe that he died and rose from the dead. This is historical fact. But it wasn’t until years after his death that people like St. Paul began to mythologize the figure of Jesus. St. Paul had very little concern for the particulars of Jesus’ teachings or the events of his life—at least, he mentions them very little in his writings. Rather, he was concerned with the mystery of Jesus—especially regarding his death and resurrection. Paul wanted to bring this character out of the past and into the present. He succeeded, and Jesus has become an enduring mythological figure, someone that Christians experience on a daily basis now, in the 21^st century. They experience him through both ritual (studying scripture, going to church, taking the Eurcharist) and through action (leading a life according to Jesus’ teachings). Thus, Jesus has become a spiritual reality. His death and resurrection happened once, and now, it happens over and over again.

In the past, things were no different. Myths allowed our ancestors to relate to their surroundings, and to the forces that they believed sacred. It allowed them to experience divinity. The gods were all around them and they saw their handiwork daily. To them, the gods were inseparable from love, passion, anger, storms, the sea, and the quiet beauty of nature. Myths lifted them out of this mundane existence and gave them the ability to see the world with new eyes. Myths addressed timeless truths, fears, desires, and pointed them in the direction of a life more richly endowed.

Freud and Jung had an interesting take on Roman and Greek mythology. They looked at these gods and likened them to facets of our personalities. They proposed that these characters were archetypes from the collective unconscious, and the tales they existed within embodied universal truths that were universally relatable. Freud and Jung then went one step further and posed the question—could not these gods be the emotions and feelings that we experience on a daily basis? Perhaps Mars, the god of war was simply another way of understanding aggression, and so when the Romans spoke of him, they simply referred to a person being consumed with rage. Perhaps by personifying this emotion, it helped the ancient Greeks understand themselves and how they related to the universe around them, just as the mythology of Jesus helps modern Christians participate in the divine.

Can it not be said that a human is a microcosm of the entire universe, composed of the same basic stuff in different quantities? As above, so below.

James Allen and Willy Wonka

Happy New Year! After a recent reading of James Allen’s short but powerful treatise, “As a Man Thinketh” I watched the 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and discovered a striking resemblance. Simply put, the fictional character Willy Wonka (both in Roald Dahl’s original book and as Wonka was personified by Gene Wilder in ‘71) lives by a life philosophy that very much mirrors that of James Allen’s. Take for example the lyrics to Willy Wonka’s first song in the film:

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and do it
Anything you want, just do it
Want to change the world…
There’s nothing to it.
There is no life I know
That compares with pure imagination
Living there, you’ll be free
If you truly wish to be.

What a marvelous way to view the world. What a magnificent and open minded sentiment—to believe that nothing truly holds us down, nothing holds us back from what we wish to achieve aside from our own minds. This is precisely what James Allen writes about in “As a Man Thinketh.” And so it is.

A woman is nothing more and nothing less than the whole summation of her thoughts. While she cannot always control the events that occupy her mind, she can control the way she reacts to them. A person’s circumstances reveal the true nature of their thoughts and is an immediate manifestation of his or her thoughts.

“Men think that thought can be kept secret,” James Allen writes, “but it can not. Thought quickly crystallizes into habit, which materializes as circumstance... Bestial thoughts crystallize into wanton drunkenness and sensuality…[while] thoughts of courage, self-reliance and decision crystallize into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom.”

Does this not make perfect sense? We are attracted to that which we dream, and will always move toward that dream until we manifests our destiny. We MUST become our dreams. We must. It is our destiny—just as long as we remember that it is not easy, and that failure is a necessary station on the road to success. We must not be discouraged by disappointment, by cynical thoughts, or by the doubts and fears that invade us at every turn. These types of thoughts must be rigorously excluded for they serve no need whatsoever.

So why then does the world seem so full of doubts and fears? Indeed, at every stop along the tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, nay sayers jump at him with cynical thoughts and aspersions, claiming that their own eyes deceived them somehow. It was only through an immense feat of will power that Wonka was able to achieve all that he dreamed. Perhaps the finest manifestion of this idea is the final utterance of the movie.

You know what happened to the boy who got everything he ever wished for, don’t you, Charlie? He lived happily ever after.

So few movies are imbued with such a palpable sense of magic, of possibility, of wonder. So few actually foster that sense that anything could happen if you wish for it badly enough; if you truly believe it can happen and that you are capable of it.

And what a wonderful thing to inspire! I wish there were more messages like that in the world. God knows there are more than enough messages to the contrary, telling us we’re not good enough, we’re not smart enough, we’re not thin enough, or pretty enough, or lucky enough to achieve the things we hold so dearly in our hearts.

"Cherish your visions, cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. For out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built."

Could not these very lines be spoken by James Allen or Willy Wonka?

“Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world behind this one, and everything we see here is like a shadow of that world… It was this vision that gave him his great power, for when he went into a fight, he had only to think of that world to be in it again, so that he could go through anything and not be hurt.” –Black Elk Speaks, transcribed by John G. Neihardt

“A really excellent narcissist would be a really powerful tool for saving the planet. If everyone was a perfect narcissist, there would be nothing to worry about because we’d automatically fix everything and our purchases would be so begnign. It’s not self-absorbed, it’s just knowing what’s good for self… as we perfect our narcissism, it comes around where you’re actually doing things that feel like sharing, that feel like connected behavior.” --Alex Bogusky in this Fast Company article


Each of us is the whole and total definition of our capacities. We are the authorities of how our lives will play out. We are the dreamers of dreams, the masters of our own destinies. It is our responsibility to ourselves and to the universe at large to live out our fantasies... to the Nth degree… in grossest detail.

Juice Fasting

I recently read a book on juice fasting (Juice Fasting and Detoxification by Steve Meyerowitz). It’s a well-written book, very well researched and has a fun, casual tone that makes it a breeze to read. It was fascinating, not only for the facts and figures about fasting, but also about the benefits of drinking juices and all the wonderful things they do for your body. It’s amazing when you realize how Mother Nature is so well suited for humans, and how she sustains us so perfectly with all her health giving fruits and vegetables. These truly are the gems of the Earth, and they make us feel magnificent if only we let them do their thing and consume them regularly.

Though this fast was a short one, it was certainly educational. I made a few mistakes along the way, and what better way to learn something than by making a mistake? The key thing I learned (and learned the hard way) was about the state of our digestive systems. Under normal circumstances, our bodies are coated in a thin layer of food residue and bacteria. This bacteria is both good and bad. It’s good because it helps the digestive process occur. It also protects our bodies from harmful fried foods and tequila shots and other bad things we put in our bodies sometimes. However, when that layer gets to be too thick, we don’t get all the nutrients from our food that we should. Food just sort of slips in and out of our systems, and we only extract a small percentage of the vitamins and minerals. This also leads to overeating and feeling bloated, as well as unhealthy weight gain. This is where fasting comes into play.

After about 24 hours without food, depending on the speed of your metabolism, much of that food matter and good bacteria gets eaten digested and eliminated. This is good. You are eliminating food matter that may have been chilling in your digestive tract for months—years even. Flushing that stuff out is a necessary thing to do, for sure. Once that layer is gone though, your body still needs energy, and so it starts tapping other parts of the body. You start digesting some of the fat you may have built up, and even some of the diseased or sick areas of the body. This is why they say fasting is an especially good idea for sick people.

When you are finished fasting, whether it be 24 hours or 24 days later, your digestive tract is in a VERY sensitive state. That whole protective layer of food and good bacteria is long gone. It may take as long as the time you fasted or even longer to build up that protective layer again. Once you start eating again, man are you hungry! That hunger comes on fast, and you feel like you could eat anything and everything, just as if the fast never happened. Well, let me tell you something brother—no matter what your stomach may tell you, you are NOT ready for full on food. Steer clear of any sort of meat or fried food for at least a week. It is a bad idea. If you eat any of that unnatural stuff before you are fully ready, you are going to experience a whopper of a stomach ache. Ohhh! It’s not good. Believe me.

In closing, fast for your health, it will make you feel and look great—but when returning to food, be PATIENT. That’s the most dangerous part of the fast and where everyone messes up. Good luck.